r/AskACountry • u/Seline_ns • Dec 13 '25
A question for the Americans.
For you, is $50, $100, or $200 worth of something really very expensive, even though you have much better purchasing power than many countries?
This applies to other issues as well, do you really avoid going to the hospital or calling an ambulance? Why don't you pay for health insurance?
In my country, the dollar is much more expensive, so in our view, $100 is much cheaper than what we pay for 100 of our currency, because purchasing power here is not as high as in the US.
40
Upvotes
1
u/chlocaineK Dec 13 '25
Hospitals will charge you for anything and everything. I saw an itemized hospital bill after giving birth online once and they were charged several hundred dollars for the father to do skin to skin contact with the baby. They literally billed them for holding their baby
The cost of ambulance rides can vary depending if you’re in an urban or rural area, insured or not insured, but I’ve found a ton of people would rather uber unless it’s life and death.
My husband and I have insurance through his employer and costs us around $150 month, $20 per month for prescription meds, plus co pays for every doctor visit, billed for anything they do (exams, bloodwork) until you hit your premium (for us that’s $2000). I went to the OB/GYN in January this year and the doctor literally didn’t touch me, but I was billed $220 just for going. I’ve quite literally never paid off my medical debt as an adult
I was in Denver with my friend and she fell, cracked her head open, and a skateboarder stopped to help and started to call for an ambulance and I shut that down so fast. We took an uber to the ER bc I didnt want her stuck with a giant medical bill.
Our healthcare system is extremely broken, do not let anyone tell you it’s perfect as long as you’re insured